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The Science of 
Fruit Growing 

Based on Nature's Laws 



"By 

VIRGIL BOGUE 

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ALBION, NEW YORK 



Price, $2.00 



DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE PRINT 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 

1917 



'365- 



Copyright 1917 

BY 

VIRGIL BOGUE 



/ 



OCT -9 1917 



3CiA476444 



THE SCIENCE OF FRUIT GROWING 
BASED ON NATURE'S LAWS 

BY 

VIRGIL BOGUE, Albion, N. Y. 



LET us consider the great work that is 
being done to create and maintain the 
vegetable and animal kingdom in pro- 
ducing delicious fruits, attractive shape, 
fragrant and beautiful flowers of various 
shades and colors ; and wonder who the Archi- 
tect can be, how long he has been designing 
them, to what part are we assigned in their 
creation, and what shall our harvest be. 



The Science of Fruit Growing 



God's workshop — what is it for, where is 
it, what does He make, what is the material 
used, and what is His great motor power? 

The word God is used to designate the 
Greater and Controller of everything. His 
workshop is in the leaf of plants of all de- 
scription. It consists of a system of cells 
corresponding to the lungs of a person, and 
from them there is an opening through the 
under side of the leaf representing the mouth 
and throat of a person, and apparently as sen- 
sitive in taking in and letting out the air to 
the air chambers of the leaf. Joining these 
air cells and separated from them by a deli- 
cate system of sensitive organs, is a set of 
cells representing the stomach, which receives 
the sap from the roots through a system of 
veins. It is in these parts where the action 
of the great power of heat and light make 
chloroplast which is the real live molecule of 



Based on Nature's Laws. 



vegetable life, usually green in color as we see 
most leaves to be. It unites with the sap and 
circulates through the whole plant, aiding to 
reinvigorate any weak parts and to construct 
new parts. The making of chloroplast is the 
primary action for the construction of all 
vegetable growth on the earth's surface, and 
only for it, the earth would be bare of all 
vegetable growth and all animals that subsist 
on vegetable growth. 

The ordinary apple leaf has about one 
hundred thousand breathing cells opening 
from the under side of it, to spray the leaves 
in the early part of the growing season (which 
is the time it is doing its best work) with a 
thick spray, the nature of which would form 
a coating over the opening of the breathing 
cells, would reduce the efficiency of the leaf. 
To spray the tree in its dormant state with a 
solution that will kill fungii and the eggs of 



The Science of Fruit Growing 



insects, is very beneficial. If there are in- 
jurious insects in sufficient quantities to 
injure the fruit or tree in its growing season, 
it should be sprayed with a thin poison liquid 
that will interfere with the action of the leaf 
as little as possible. 

The necessity for the air cells of a leaf 
being furnished regularly with an abundance 
of pure air, corresponds with the needs of 
pure air for the lungs of an animal. All leaves 
are sensitive to heat and cold, wet and dry 
conditions. They flourish where the condi- 
tions seem best adapted to them. Some are 
more sensitive to the changes at different sea- 
sons of the year than others. While the 
grapevine flourishes over a large area of 
country, it fails to develop the sugar from the 
starch condition at such locations as have cool 
nights when it is ripening. The cool air stops 
the working of the leaf, and the fruit remains 



Based on Nature's Laws. 



in about tlie same condition of ripening. 
Though vines allowed to grow in the top of 
tall trees or trailed up under the eaves of a 
tall building above the strata of cold air, 
ripen their fruit to perfection, as does the 
vine growing in the favored location under 
the influence of a lake that keeps the air warm 
at that season of growth. 

Severe electric storms have a similar ef- 
fect on the leaves as a light frost. As elec- 
tric storms come at the season of the year 
when the trees are making the best 
growth, their bad effect is more often over- 
come by elimination. 

We find by observation and reasoning, 
that trees have life, and are constructed and 
maintained by the same natural laws that 
govern and maintain the animal kingdom. 
That is, they have the circulation of the sap, 



The Science of Fruit Growing 



which represents the blood of the animal. 
This circulation is continuous throughout the 
growing season. We notice by cutting off a 
part of the top or roots during the growing 
season, it immediately withers and dies and 
in many cases where the tree is all cut off 
near the ground in the growing season, the 
roots and top both die, and we therefore con- 
clude, naturally, that the one is dependent 
on the other. 

The life of the tree is in its molecules, with 
functions similar to those in the animal king- 
dom to a certain extent. Some of these are 
constructive and others digestive and dis- 
tributive. They do the work of reinvigorat- 
ing by cleansing the marred or unhealthy 
parts, as we can see by examining the inner 
part of the body of the tree or large limbs, 
that the annual courses of growth show nearly 
a perfect condition, when we know they had 



Based on Nature's Laws. 



been severely bruised, and many small limbs 
cut from them. Trees differ in their ability 
to cleanse and re-establish the tissues, as 
shown by the pine. Many of their knots are 
not wholly eliminated. This would tend to 
show that there were two circulations of the 
sap: one in the bark and outer courses of the 
wood and between them; the other from the 
bark to and from the heart or center of the 
tree. A cross section of a seasoned oak tree 
shows this distinctly. 

The sap is quite thin and watery in the 
forepart of the growing season, but grows 
thicker as the season advances, finally 
reaching a state of solidity located in the bark 
and outer edges of the wood, to remain 
through its dormant season, then to be en- 
livened and brought into action by the warm 
moist atmosphere of spring, thus to continue 
its previous season's growth. As a proof of 



10 The Science of Fruit Growing 

this, saw a limb of two inches in diameter 
from a bearing Apple tree in the spring, just 
as the sap is starting, and put the end in 
a dish of warm water, keeping it in a warm, 
moist atmosphere. The limb will leaf, blos- 
som, and continue its growth until its life 
substance is exhausted. 

As proof of the location of the life sub- 
stance through its dormant stage, bore a hole 
one-half inch deep into a sugar maple tree in 
the spring, and let the sap run till it is dry; 
then bore it in another inch,and it will run 
more sap, apparently nearly as well filled 
with sugar as the first. This will also illus- 
trate how the sap, in its thin liquid shape, 
takes up the sugar or real life substance of 
the tree and carries it to the leaves, to be 
digested or separated into its different parts, 
forming a new growth of wood, bark, leaves, 
roots, blossoms and fruit. 



Based on Nature's Laws. 11 

We find that a higher state of vitality is 
produced when the roots and tops are fur- 
nished regularly with the necessary condi- 
tions and material for its growth. We want 
not only vitality, but matured vitality, in the 
fruit tree, in order to have it stand the debili- 
tating effects of Winter, and hold and grow 
its fruit after it is set. Nature has furnished 
a sufficient amount of this in the tree to pro- 
duce occasional crops of fine fruit in those 
sections where fruit naturally grows. 

The fruit grower finds it necessary to do 
something more to aid the tree in securing its 
moisture more regularly and its feeding ma- 
terial more abundantly. The bacteria that is 
necessary to decompose vegetable matter in 
the soil, in order to make plant food available 
for the feeding of the roots, does not do its 
best work when the soil is crusted, hard, or 
covered with sod, but does it when the ground 



12 The Science of Fruit Growing 

is frequently cultivated and broken up into 
fine parts, so the air is readily admitted to 
the place where the decomposition is going 
on, and is facilitated by the abundance of 
fresh air that enters into the process of de- 
composition of vegetable matter, and the 
growth of plants. 

The tree can not live any great length of 
time with its roots in water. Neither can it 
produce a regular and sufficient circulation 
of its sap without moisture in sufficient quan- 
tities to supply its needs. The nearer we can 
furnish regularly the needed moisture, and 
in its proper season, the more matured vital- 
ity it will possess, and like the hill of corn, the 
size and maturity of the ear it produces de- 
pends on the amount of matured vitality in 
the stalk. For instance, a hill of corn planted 
early and which through neglect dries up, 
produces little, and one planted late produces 



Based on Nature's Laws. 13 

an immatured ear of but little value. The 
fruit-bearing tree is as sensitive to cultiva- 
tion as a liill of corn. They both use the same 
conditions for their growth. To obtain the 
best results, they both need to be planted 
far enough apart so that the sun can strike 
the land where their roots feed. A root 
grown in the sun is worth more for producing 
matured vitality than one grown in the shade. 
This is readily shown by trying to grow either 
in the shade of a building. 

Trees bear best when furnished appar- 
ently an excess amount of fertilizer, and the 
land well plowed, thoroughly and often cul- 
tivated, from early Spring to the first of Sep- 
tember, then seeded to chickweed or some 
Fall plant that grows mostly on moisture. 
One reason why orchards located near lakes 
bear more regularly than those inland, is that 
moist cloudy conditions that aid the trees in 



14 The Science of Fruit Growing 

growing at the season when the fruit bud is 
maturing its vitality for the following year's 
crop. Trees growing further away from the 
lakes are more often matured by the sun be- 
fore they are fully developed. They both ap- 
pear to blossom about the same, but while 
one holds and grows the fruit, the other more 
often drops it before maturity. This relates 
to trees growing under neglect and depending 
entirely on natural conditions. 

Where the trees grow under more sunny 
conditions, and are furnished the necessary 
moisture and food regularly by cultivation, 
they produce good crops of better colored 
fruit, which means better flavor. Fruits, like 
flowers, reach the highest state of perfection 
in proportion to the amount of sunlight they 
receive, other conditions being equal. 

The individuality of the fruit is a germ 



Based on Nature's Laws. 15 

much smaller than the head of a pin, located 
just under the base of the bud in a jet. If a 
jet of a Greening or any variety is transferred 
to another variety and grows, the fruit born 
from it would be of the variety from which it 
was taken. This is called budding, and by 
it one tree can be made to produce many dis- 
tinct varieties of apples. The budding should 
be done when the new growth is nearly ma- 
tured, and the sap in the tree to be budded 
is beginning to thicken. Under such condi- 
tions the bud and the tree unite readily. 

Trees do not produce fruit in the younger 
stages of their growth. Like the animal 
kingdom, they seem to require a matured 
state for reproduction. The growth of the 
fruit spurs represent the necessary matured 
condition for reproduction. The first blos- 
soms on a young tree seldom produce fruit, 
as the tree has to advance beyond that stage. 



16 The Science of Fruit Growing 

One leaf will not produce fruit. It requires 
a number, and the larger proportion of leaves 
to a fruit, the better and the nearer the leaves 
to the fruit, the better action they have in 
producing it. 

Each variety of fruit has its special sea- 
sons and necessary conditions to develop and 
mature its fruit germ which is done the year 
before it bears fruit. The productiveness of 
a tree depends in a large measure on the 
structure of the leaf and its adaptability to 
conditions. To illustrate, take the Greening, 
its terminal leaves are usually the largest it 
produces in the season, indicating that the 
maturing of the tree is continued till the last 
of the season, and is generally known to be a 
great and regular bearer of fruit. In contrast 
to this we will take the Esopus Spitzenberg, 
the leaves of which are the smallest at the 
last of the season's growth, and taper back in 



Based on Nature's Laws. 17 

size to those grown in mid-season. That does 
not represent the best conditions for produc- 
ing a developed and mature condition of the 
germ. Hence it is only under the most favor- 
able conditions that this variety bears. Other 
illustrations are numerous. 

When starting an orchard, it is best to 
secure nursery trees that have been budded 
or grafted from bearing trees, as in many 
cases they have been rebudded from nursery 
trees for a dozen or more generations, which 
eliminates in a large measure the nature of 
reproduction of fruit, and they do not bear 
as young as when budded from bearing trees. 
The tree should be cared for from the time 
it is dug from the nursery until it is planted, 
in the best way to keep it from deteriorating 
in vitality by drying up or the roots being 
frosted when out of the ground or exposed 
in a cold room or put in water, especially cold 



18 The Science of Fruit Growing 

water, as it requires more attention to re- 
invigorate it after its vitality has been re- 
duced fifty per cent, or more by transplanting. 
The trees should be planted in a good pul- 
verized and moderately rich soil, and have the 
dirt packed well around the roots. The roots 
can be puddled in a thin mud before planting, 
but never wet down the dirt in the hole when 
planting, as it later produces a hard, dry- 
baked condition that may require a year or 
more to change to be like the surrounding 
ground, in the meantime the tree will do poor- 
ly. If a farmer was asked how he would treat 
a small piece of ground so that it would not 
grow weeds or anything else with natural 
thrift, he would reply: ^^ Spade it in the 
Spring when wet, and stamp it down thor- 
oughly. '' This is the way many plant trees. 
The tree should be given such care as is neces- 
sary to furnish its requirements for a con- 



Based on Nature's Laws. 19 

tinuous growth, from the time it is set until 
it dies of old age. 

Trimming should be started from the be- 
ginning by cutting off all mutilated roots 
smoothly, when planting, so they will callous 
more readily and start fine roots. About one- 
third of the ends of the last year's growth 
of the tops should be cut off, in order to 
start the new growth from well-matured 
wood. The centre of the tree should be al- 
lowed to grow and be maintained throughout 
its whole existence. After the first year the 
side branches should be cut off to within six 
inches of the tree, and allowed to produce all 
the side growth they can of any nature. The 
following year anything growing on the short 
growth over six inches, should be shortened 
to six inches, and also the side growth on the 
center, until the tree reaches a height at 
which you want the first permanent limb to 



20 The Science of Fruit Growing 

grow, and then leave a limb for permanent 
growth, and above that six inches to a foot 
on another side of the tree leave another limb, 
proceeding in this manner until five or six 
have been left for permanent growth. These 
should be cut back a little on the ends, and 
the limbs making too large a growth on its 
sides, in order to force a production of as 
many fruit spurs and short growths on the 
body and main limbs as possible. The leaves 
on these short twigs serve to make the main 
limbs stocky and are performing near it their 
office of developing the whole tree, root and 
branches. Where there are no short twigs 
and the sap has to traverse a long body, and 
then a long limb to reach the few leaves at 
the end of it, and return lightly reinvigorated 
with chlorophyll to construct and reinvigor- 
ate the roots, it can not be expected that such 
a condition would produce as favorable re- 



Based on Nature's Laws. 21 

suits as would follow where the body and 
large limbs are more covered with short twigs 
and fruit spurs. 

Under the latter condition you would 
seldom see any water sprouts that Nature is 
always producing on large bare limbs. Four 
or five feet above the first started permanent 
limbs, should be grown another lot and so on, 
as high as you wish to have the tree grow. 
Always aim to produce and preserve as many 
short twigs on the larger limbs as is possible. 
If the short limbs grow too strong and fill in 
the inside too much, cut them back, and so 
force out more fruit spurs on them. Eemem- 
ber, that one leaf does not make an Apple and 
that the more fruit-spur leaves you can pro- 
duce on the body and main limbs, the better, 
A large percentage of the fruit will grow on 
these short twigs. There are many orchards 
in Western New York that are practically and 



22 The Science of Fruit Growing 

scientifically trimmed under the present sys- 
tem of culture, that are in such a weak state 
of vitality that many of their limbs are dying 
from exhaustion, the sap not being able to 
traverse the distance necessary to reach the 
leaves on the ends of the limbs, and then re- 
turn with the necessary nourishment to con- 
tinue life, and that too under good conditions 
and cultivation. For the most part these 
trees do not and cannot produce as many 
pounds of fruit as they did ten years ago, or 
what they could have produced if they had 
never been trimmed. Trees properly trimmed 
from the beginning under this plan, would 
eliminate the necessity of cutting out large 
limbs in later years, as is very often the case. 
Every time a limb or root of a tree is cut off, 
it injures the tree. There are some seasons of 
the year when to trim a tree injures it most. 

We are often told that the time to cut 



Based on Nature's Laws. 23 

bushes or trees to kill them is in August. The 
reason I assume for plants dying when cut 
at this time, is that the tree or bushes has 
reached its highest state of growth, and be- 
gins the maturing of the growth, which it is 
not able to do without the aid of the leaves, 
decomposition sets in, and it dies. To trim 
trees late in the Fall or Winter, exposes the 
tender inner part of the bark. The freezing 
and thawing makes a bad sore, which extends 
much farther under the bark than is apparent 
from the outside and has to be reinvigorated 
by the sap in summer, the same as the blood 
heals a sore. On nursery trees, where the re- 
sults are more readily observed, it has often 
affected the trees so badly, especially the 
Baldwins, that the heart would become black 
and punky, and in later years the tree would 
become worthless and die. 

A little statement in a book on tree culture 



24 The Science of Fruit Growing 

sent out many years ago from Rochester, 
N. Y., stated : " Trim any time your knife 
was sharpr This was the cause of many 
thousand worthless trees. To preserve the 
greatest amount of vigor the tree should be 
trimmed just before the leaves start in the 
Spring. To trim just after the leaves start is 
very weakening. It grows less injurious as 
the season advances, up to about July 1st, 
after which it is more injurious on fruit- 
bearing trees until Winter. Where large 
limbs have to be cut off, it should be at the 
collar and not in the shoulder, as the shoulder 
possesses the healing nature of growth and 
the limb does not; the cut should be imme- 
diately painted with linseed oil and iron ore, 
to keep the fungii parasites out until it can 
grow over. Never use any animal oil on 
trees unless made into soap. 

The functions of the roots are to serve as 



Based on Nature's Laws. 25 

the stomach of the tree, to receive the moist- 
ure and food necessary for the maintainance 
of the tree. They work in conjunction with 
the leaves, which act as the lungs. The suc- 
cess of this depends on the amount of moist- 
ure and food available and the regularity 
with which it is obtained. Our ancestors 
found that by plowing and cultivating the 
soil, plants and trees produced a greater 
growth and yield than when planted in solid 
ground: in most cases the more the land is 
cultivated, the larger the growth. 

The roots of trees vary, according to the 
depth of the soil they flourish in, and also de- 
pend on the variety of the tree and the 
solidity of the soil. They require a certain 
amount of healthy air, light and sunshine, 
and they thrive best where they can best 
secure these. An excess amount of moisture 
in the ground at the growing season for an 



26 The Science of Fruit Growing 

extended period reduces the quality of the 
sap in an Apple tree until it weakens and dies. 
If it does not kill the tree it very often pre- 
vents it from producing enough matured 
vitality to hold its fruit after the blossoming 
season for that and the following year. When 
the ground becomes very dry from the Sum- 
mer drouth, the root will go deeper into the 
ground, seeking moisture. As the stronger 
of the roots will take the lead downward, 
many of the smaller roots become inactive 
and die. The root has the same nature as 
the top, in always sending out branches to 
gather its requirements. Often they get so 
deep that the Spring rains following, drown 
them out for the want of air, they die, and the 
tree starts out roots near the surface again. 

If we can reason that the tree requires 
matured roots, the same as the top requires 
matured fruit spurs in order to produce fruit. 



Based on Nature's Laws. 27 

then many of the trees' failure to produce, 
may be accounted for and very strong evi- 
dence of the value of cultivation, which keeps 
the roots near the surface of the ground. Also 
this demonstrates the value of deep under- 
drains. A root grown where the sunlight 
can strike the earth above it, is much more 
valuable than one grown in the shade. 

The place to put manure is outside the 
shade of the tree, to have it do the most 
good, for the more roots feeding in the sun- 
light, the better. Nearly all substances sub- 
ject to decomposition by the ground are good 
to produce growth. Vegetable and mineral 
substances are better than animal. Warm, 
moist ground is a great deodorizer and de- 
composer of manural substances. Dry ground 
is much less active or efficient. 

As trees and plants get their nourishment 



28 The Science of Fruit Growing 

from the soil through the roots, it is well to 
keep the soil in as good condition as possible 
to feed the roots all the time the tree or plant 
is growing. The ends of these roots are 
porous, like a sponge, and absorb the moist- 
ure, which is in the form of a film surrounding 
each grain of soil, and is enriched by the ma- 
terial in the grain of earth and the gases and 
spirits formed by the decomposed manural 
substances in the soil, by action of heat and 
moisture, and then conveyed to the leaves by 
capillary attraction. The quality of the 
moisture called sap, so obtained, depends on 
the available proportions of potash, phos- 
phoric acid and nitrogen as necessaries, and 
lime, iron, magnesia and other chemicals as 
assistants. Nearly all vegetable substances, 
except a few heavily laden with acids, that 
are susceptible to decomposition when well 
assimilated in the soil under action of heat 



Based on Nature's Laws. 29 

and moisture, make good plant food. The 
fomenting condition of the soil is kept even 
and continuous in proportion as the soil is 
kept cultivated under favorable conditions. 

A barrel of fine refuse salt, sown evenly 
over an acre of finely pulverized dry land, 
will aid in promoting vegetable growth in 
a dry time. Care should be taken not to sow 
it in lumps or piles, as the impurities in salt 
draws moisture from the atmosphere. If the 
dense liquid or brine formed by it should 
come in contact with the roots of the trees in 
sufficient quantity, it would draw the less 
dense liquid or sap from the roots, and kill 
them the same way that it kills grass, viz., by 
drawing the moisture from its roots. 

Light acting on the leaves develops 
chlorophyll, which is the green color of vege- 
tation. It digests or elaborates the sap, which 



30 The Science of Fruit Growing 

fits it for the production of new cells that form 
the extensions of new growths of leaves, wood 
and fruit. The solidity of the vegetable or 
fruit depends on the amount of light the 
leaves receive. The leaves should be kept 
as free as possible from all fungii or 
foreign substances and in a growing con- 
dition, that its cells may be open to receive 
the light, and not dry up from lack of sap. 
When in a healthy, growing condition the 
leaf absorbs oxygen and hydrogen from the 
air in the day, and casts off surplus oxygen 
and carbonic acid at night. The oxygen is 
necessary for its development, and the car- 
bonic acid becomes a foreign substance to be 
eliminated for the health of the plant. If the 
leaf is not able to receive oxygen freely, or 
if there is a lack of free elimination of the 
foreign substances, it would create a clogging 
of the growing system and produce bad re- 



Based on Nature's Laws. 31 

suits, the same as in the animal system. The 
plant, in trying to eliminate foreign substance 
in the growing season, caused by frozen cells, 
is often overtaxed, and dies, or continues its 
life in a weakened state, producing little 
results. 

If the frozen part of a tree or plant could 
be removed by cutting it off as soon as it is 
frozen, it would save the tree or plant from 
having to eliminate the foreign matter or 
dead molecules in the sap through its regular 
system of growth. The ability of a tree to 
recover from the effects of a late Spring 
freeze, and mature its fruit, depends on the 
amount of matured vitality it has to aid its 
growth, and the severity of the freeze. 

It is more exhausting to a tree to let it 
hold its fruit until it ripens and drop off itself, 
than it is to pick it off as soon as it is ready 



32 The Science of Fruit Growing 

for the market. The difference in many in- 
stances means a failure in fruit production 
the following year. It is injurious to a tree 
to allow its fruit to decay on the ground under 
it. As far as possible it should be removed. 
The dead leaves seem to be good fertilizer, 
and they should be held on the ground as they 
fall by some late fall growing plant until 
plowed under. To plow the land in the late 
fall or early winter, kills many of the insects 
that winter in the ground. The leaves and 
plants plowed under are ready to decay in 
the Spring as soon as the warm weather de- 
velops the bacteria necessary for decomposi- 
tion, and so becomes available for plant food. 
The fungii that is on the leaves and rejected 
fruit, develops in the Spring, when the leaves 
and rejected fruit are allowed to remain on 
the ground, into millions of spores at a tem- 
perature of 45 degrees, which float in the air, 



Based on Nature's Laws. 3Z 

alighting on everything with which they come 
in contact, but only grow where they can get 
nourishment suitable for their needs. 

The most of fruits, like grasses, have a 
better flavor when harvested just before their 
seeds ripen, and allowed to cure or ripen 
slowly in a cool place. 

The highest state of perfection in the fruit 
is produced where it has been regularly fur- 
nished its necessities for growth while in its 
tannin, starch and sugar stages. An imper- 
fect tannin cannot produce a perfect starch, 
and an imperfect starch cannot produce a 
perfect sugar, which are the different stages 
of growth in the fruit. 

For want of application a very little bene- 
fit is being received from our knowledge of 
the beneficial animals, birds and insects. 
There are enough of them if they were prop- 



34 The Science of Fruit Growing 

erly fostered to destroy all the injurious in- 
sects that injure the trees and vegetable 
plants. 

There is the skunk or polecat, which is a 
busy worker at night — when it feels free to 
roam without being molested, it has an v^ 
stinct to detect grubs, snails and other in- 
sects, when it is walking over the ground, 
located at a depth of two inches from the sur- 
face of the ground, and digs them out for 
its food. It is shy of people, and only uses its 
power of defense when in danger. It lives 
mostly in burrows in the ground in localities 
where it is not likely to be molested. 

The snake, of which there are many kinds 
that are harmless, lives mostly on mice, 
ground moles, insects, and berries. They live 
mostly in stone piles, a fence post set with 
stones around it makes a satisfactory place 



Based on Nature's Laws. 35 

for them to live. The toads live on insects 
gathered with their tongue, which is extreme- 
ly long and so constructed that it can catch 
and hold a very quick insect. It likes to live 
under a flat stone raised just far enough above 
the ground for it to enter. A few such homes 
located along the edge of the garden would 
soon be well occupied, and a great reduction 
of insects in the garden would follow. 

The wasp, hornet, sweat bees, and lady 
bugs, are great butchers of insects and eaters 
of insects' eggs. The wasp stings many in- 
sects — among them the green pear worm — 
until it dies. It then drags it to a place where 
it has a hole in the ground, where it puts it, 
then lays an egg in the worm and covers it 
up, apparently with a satisfaction that it has 
done something to perpetuate its kind, as the 
larvae formed from the egg feeds on the de- 
composing insect. They prefer to live in a 



36 The Science of Fruit Growing 

quiet place, often in the top of a building that 
is not much frequented by people. 

The hornet does the same killing of in- 
sects, but it prefers a hollow stalk of a 
plant in which to put the insect, and deposit 
its Qgg. There are different kinds of birds 
that are great devourers of insects and pos- 
sess a wonderful instinct for locating them. 
The woodpecker has the instinct to locate a 
grub feeding in and under the bark of a tree, 
and has strength in its bill to drill a hole and 
get it to eat. It is continually hunting on 
trees for insects. It likes its home in a dense 
wooded ravine, where it raises its young in a 
hole in a tree that it has made with its own 
bill. 

The Creator has provided all these and 
many other helpful animals, birds, and 
insects, with a nature of reproduction and to 



Based on Nature's Laws. 37 

seek seclusion for their homes. They would 
be of great benefit if they were protected, in- 
stead of often being foolishly killed. 

To understand these conditions and try to 
produce them will give more and regular 
compensation for the labor and expense be- 
stowed on the producing of fruits, vegetables, 
grains and flowers. 



Appl^ the principles herein advanced to the 
care of your or char dy and note results. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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